Helen
by Helen Nurse
Summary: A woman who doesn't believe in her own memories of two men who change her forever. One shot. I do not own Doctor Who or any characters related to the series.


My name is Helen Harper, at least that's what everyone tells me. I have short, brown hair, hazel eyes, and fair skin. All that I tell you is based on almost memories. I call them that because I have no true memories other than those my friends remind me of.

I am supposed to be twenty four years old, but I don't quite understand everything quite yet.

I have two older sisters who are both shorter than me. My sister Aria and I share the same Dad. Dad adopted Mary, my other sister, when we were all in high school. I guess we're the oddest three sisters on Earth; a classically trained opera singer, an editor, and a woman who doesn't know who she is. I always laugh at the last one, cause that's me!

Now, this is the most interesting part, I remember everything that's happened to me, I just refuse to believe it. So, who's ready to hear the adventure of a lifetime that I'm not sure really happened at all? Good, Let's get on with it then. It all started at the end of the Fall 2013 Semester at Folsom Lake College. Mind you, that's probably the only real thing in this entire story.

* * *

I

It was cold, windy, and overcast in Folsom that day. There were snow clouds forming over the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I was walking to my American Lit class and a hulking redheaded man bumped into me and caused me to drop all of my papers.

"Oh, sorry. Sorry, here, let me help you" he said while blushing and stooping down to help me with my papers. As he handed me back my papers in order he introduced himself "The name's James. James Alcott. And you are Helen Harper, right? You sit in the front row of our American Lit class. That's a very good essay you've written. Though, I don't think that's for Mrs. Lannink, is it? Too much spacey wacey timey wimey stuff in it for her liking." Once we were both standing, I got a really good look at him.

He was about or a little taller than six foot. He definitely had the build of my ex boyfriend on the Rugby team we had in high school.

Like I said, he had red hair. But he had brilliant sapphire blue eyes and a good smile. I don't know why, but he made me feel safe while also giving off a feeling that he was always just about to do something stupid or childish. The term perpetual eight-year-old comes to mind.

Anyways, he then with all the decorum of an eighteenth century gentleman held out his arm and escorted me to class while shyly trying to glance at me when I wasn't looking.

* * *

II

Once we got to class, he asked "Would you like to go out to lunch with me? I know a really nice little Vietnamese cuisine restaurant not too far from here."

I replied "Yes, but how did you know all that about my paper?"

"Fast reader." he said and I left it at that.

After the lecture ended, he walked up to me and asked "Why do you write so much? Where are you trying to go? I know its not the past, your writing has too much science in it to be easily about the past. But I don't see how its about the future. Unless… Naw. You couldn't possibly be talking about time travel, now could you?"

"Actually I am." I replied a little too curtly. "I write about time travel because I want to see everything in the past, present and future. I'm only an English major because I need to have some sort of an escape from this reality. Time travel appeals to me because I feel like I'm always a second out of sync with the rest of the world. What if that's because I don't belong stuck in one time? I know, I know, It's impossible. But think of what you could see. Why are you smiling at me like that?"

He was smiling like I had stumbled onto one of the world's biggest discoveries made a hundred years ago. "I'm smiling because I feel the same way. About life I mean, but if you could, would you like to travel among time and space?"

I thought about what I was going to reply, and instead of telling him, I said "If you buy, maybe I'll tell you. Deal?"

"Deal."

* * *

III

So, after we sat down to eat the noodles, he started to ask me questions about my book. What surprised me was his lack of skepticism about my subject matter. At least he should have told me I was crazy at least once. But he believed me. I guess that's why I was so surprised to hear him say what he did.

"So, are you sure you have never encountered any aliens before? No? Time Travelers then. But… but how? How can a dull. Sorry, no. You are not dull. Let me rephrase that. How can a _Human_ know so much about aliens without ever meeting any?"

"My dreams." I replied.

"What?"

"My dreams. I can see vivid pictures of creatures. While I sleep. I know all their weaknesses and how each will be defeated. I'm like some sort of encyclopedia." as I told him everything I knew he grew paler and paler until he said something that was very odd.

"Are you sure you haven't been in contact with any aliens before? Because you even listed my Dad's species. And you just discount all of it as dreams. Why? Why you. What could you possibly be for. You are so normal that I think… Of course! You are an encyclopedia. Did you ever have a friend named John Smith?"

I nodded my head slowly as he kept on thinking.

"You were given, without your knowing, a data chip that when you ate it went directly to the hippocampus and its adjacent cortex. Oh, you know. Where all your memories are."

"I'm an English major. Idiot. Wait, did you say your Dad's species? What's your mum's?"

"Human. Oh, you would love her. What? Do I have some sort of bug behind me?"

"You are half alien."

"Half Time Lord, half Human, actually. Only difference is that when I regenerate, I can choose what I look like."

"But… male Time Lords can't choose their form."

"I know! Isn't this awesome?"

"No. Its freaky. And impossible. Wait. Who is your mum? If you say that she's Melody Pond, then I'll…I'll…oh just leave me alone. I don't want to be a companion, I don't want to travel through time and space. I just want to be me. The lonely writer. A girl who both is drawn to and is scared by time travel because of what happens when it goes horribly wrong."

"Are you sure that you are what you think you are? Because the only woman I've met who thinks like that is the Time Lord known as the Nurse. She follows behind the Doctor and fixes his mistakes when he messes up too many timelines. There was a myth that talked about how she came to be. It went like this:

'she was a human born for greatness. Found by the impossible Lord she ran from him, hoping he would keep away and allow her the simple life. When found by an old friend, she asked him to change her into a better being. He used the last Chameleon Arch to make her the Nurse. When she awakened he had left her feeling betrayed. She always was a step behind him, cleaning up his blunders and when he turned around he would always see her looks of betrayal. She disappeared to a land of possibilities and healed the wounds of time itself.'"

"You are the impossible Lord. The only male Time Lord who can choose his own face."

* * *

IV

I jumped up and ran. Ran as far and as fast as I could. I ran to the one man I trusted. The youngest professor of our college. John Smith, the only man who actually enjoyed my friendship without all the burdens of listening to boring gossip. I ran to him and cried. He listened and waited until I was calm and collected before speaking.

"Are you sure that he didn't follow you here? And what did you say his name was?"

"His name is James Alcott. I don't know his Time Lord Title, but he is an extremely tall red-haired man who claims to be half Time Lord and half human. John, help me. I need to hide from him. Please. I need to stay away from him."

"I know. Here, cuppa tea will fix you right as rain." he said with a sad smile.

I don't really remember what happened next. I remember John saying that he's sorry, but I couldn't reply. after that, I must have been knocked out by something in his tea. I really thought I could trust him, but when I woke up with his pale thin face looking at me like I was some sort of angel, I became worried.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

I started to reply then noticed something was different. "Why do I have two hearts? And what the hell did you do to me? You drugged me, and where the hell am I? I know that you aren't telling me something. What is happening?"

"I turned you into a Time Lord. Its the only way for you to survive and well, I have loved you ever since you accidentally walked into my lecture on Physics and smiled like I was a normal human. Most would say that they were born in the wrong time. You however, were born into the wrong species. I am sorry, but not because of that. I'm sorry because I'm going to use the Chameleon Arch to turn you back into a human. I wish that there was another way."

As he carried me gently in his arms, I asked him the question I always wanted to ask. "Who are you? John. Who are you?"

"I am the Doctor."

* * *

V

That is what I remember. Every time I fall asleep I have this dream. I don't know how, but I have a feeling that when I do believe my almost memories, I'll be forced to say good bye one last time. When I do, I will also have to choose which man to follow. The father, or the son.


End file.
